


Heroes (Never Die)

by SquiffyRogue



Series: Pharmercy Appreciation Week 2017 [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, F/F, Temporary Character Death, Violence, fluff ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-15
Updated: 2017-02-15
Packaged: 2018-09-24 17:20:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9774185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SquiffyRogue/pseuds/SquiffyRogue
Summary: Pharah and Mercy’s first mission together is on Dorado. Events loosely based off of actual matches played. Fluff ending.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Co-written with a friend who shyly wishes to remain anonymous but we will be posting fics throughout the week and will always be accepting prompts over on https://queer-skies-ahead.tumblr.com

For what felt like the thousandth time that night, Angela checked her equipment. Her caduceus staff was in perfect condition, while her blaster was strapped securely to her thigh. As much as she hated carrying a firearm, she wasn't blindly stubborn; there were situations where it would be crucial to her own safety. The flight to Dorado had gone smoothly, but the mission started in a mere 20 minutes. All around her, Angela's teammates bustled about in cheerful moods. Tracer zipped around excitedly, saying something about how the team was back together again. If only Angela could join their enthusiastic banter. Instead, she sat quietly, checking her staff one more time. Nerves were getting under her skin. It had been so long since her last mission; what if she failed? What if she was a second too late and one of her teammates perished because of it? A slight tremor ran through her at the thought, causing her to clutch her staff closer. 

Once Fareeha ran through her Raptora system’s checks she casually watched the her teammates. Making sure everyone is mentally prepared being just as important as their gear. Tracer’s excitement could cause her to be reckless but Winston’s resolve should help keep her safe. When her gaze fell to Angela the corners of her mouth dipped down into a concerned frown. The woman’s nervousness was subtle but enough for Fareeha to pick up on it. She knew she has to lighten the mood and put their medic back at ease.

“You’ve checked your gear at least three times that I’ve seen,” Fareeha says as she walks over to sit down close to Angela. She removes her helmet and sets it in her lap. “At least this is a routine escort mission,” Fareeha offers a small smile and bumps their shoulders together. “Or is there something more on your mind?”

Snapping out of her reverie, Angela turned to the woman. “Fareeha,” She breathed, mulling over her response. “I feel as though I'm rusty,” Angela admits, crossing one leg over the other while averting her gaze.

“I care so much for all of you, so I fear making even a single mistake. It's my fault if everyone here doesn't make it back.” She closes her eyes for a moment, then adds quietly. “I don't want to fail.” Her fingers slide mindlessly down her staff as a small form of comfort. 

‘That is a burden you don’t carry alone,’ is what Fareeha wants to say but ends up making a light sigh instead. Her mind flickers back to what happened at the Temple of Anubis and the losses endured.

“That is not something you have to worry about, Angela,” Fareeha says, wiping away a smudge on her helmet’s visor that isn’t there. “You have always cared so much that it isn’t possible for us to fail because of you.” She had lost soldiers under her command before and each death nagged at the back of her mind. It was her fault for not doing more back then and something she would always have to live with. But if adding to her own struggle helped another—especially someone as caring as Angela—then she would do so without hesitation or regret. Fareeha turns to attempt to get eye contact with Angela, “I will make sure you have as clear a path as you need to get your job done. If someone falls, it will be because of me and not you.” 

“Fareeha,” Angela gently scolded, finally looking at her. “It wouldn't be your fault. Keeping everyone alive is what I do; it's why I'm here. Your focus should be on the mission rather than helping me. It's not fair for you to do my job as well as your own.” 

Angela placed her hand over Fareeha's, which still rested atop her helmet. “I know that look that's in your eyes. You're remembering everyone that you failed to save, aren't you? I'm doing the same, which is likely why I'm so nervous right now.” Sighing, she shook her head. “I'll just have to snap out of it so it won't distract me out there. I'm sorry for making you worry.”

The sensation of weight from Angela’s hand on hers causes a smile to creep across Fareeha’s face. “You are on my team and therefore part of the mission,” Fareeha takes Angela’s hand in her own and holds it up in a soldiery grip. “You aren’t alone, Angela. We’re in this together and I’ve got your six.”

The vessel’s AI breaks over the comms for everyone to prepare for landing and Fareeha gives Angela’s hand a squeeze before releasing. “You are going to do fine,” Fareeha grins then secures her helmet on. ‘Because I will make sure of it,’ she mentally adds

Angela can't help but return her smile. Fareeha's words and confident demeanor put her at ease. She missed the warmth of the soldier's hand; it was calloused, but strong and firm. Taking one last breath, she steadied herself and stood, listening to the countdown to their mission start. Less than a minute now. Angela turned her staff to Fareeha. A soft, blue stream of light covered the woman, connecting them together.

“A damage boost,” She explained. “I have my eye on you.”

The blue light washes over Fareeha and she feels the hair on the back of her neck tingle. The sensation reminded her of pounding down an energy drink far too fast. 

“I will not waste this opportunity,” Fareeha gives a small nod to Angela and activates the Raptora’s rocket jump to instantly give her height on the enemy.

“Junkrat and Roadhog on the ground. Likely more. Keep your ears up and head down,” Fareeha calls over her mic to her teammates and send a rocket down between the two enemies to push them back off from the payload. Junkrat shrugs it off and starts lobbing explosives haphazardly towards their starting point. Winston was seemingly able to hold off Roadhog but she lost sight of Tracer who was likely scouting ahead. “Mercy, stick with me,” Fareeha calls back to Angela. “The ground isn’t safe.” 

“Understood.” Angela flew into the sky after Fareeha. She kept her staff trained on the woman, switching from damage boosting to healing whenever a stray bullet landed, then back again. Unfortunately, their ground team wasn't as hard to hit. Mei was doing a good job of keeping the enemies at a distance by freezing and throwing up ice walls, but she was quickly being targeted because of it. Zarya seemed to be fine for now, but Winston was taking some heavy hits from Roadhog and Junkrat. “Pharah, I'm needed down there.” 

Fareeha looked down below at the rest of her team taking harder hits. She doesn’t like the idea of Angela leaving the safety of the skies to go to the ground but knows the others could use the support and there would be no reasoning with Angela otherwise. Fareeha sets her jaw hard and watches Roadhog make his approach to rush Zarya’s left flank. 

“When you see impact, go,” she calls to Angela then no sooner sends down a concussion blast to knock Roadhog further away. Without Angela’s beam, her HUD would only display her own vitals and not the medic’s as well. ‘I must protect her,’ Fareeha thinks to herself, keeping an eye turn towards Angela’s surroundings and laying down rockets and concussive blasts to any enemy who dared get remotely close to the doctor. Her focus was so drawn below her that she missed focusing on her own surroundings. 

“Shit!” Fareeha calls out as she takes a bullet directly to her left shoulder. “Sniper on the church roof!”

“Reaper's here too! I saw him, but he disappeared,” Tracer's voice cut through the comms a second later.

Angela, meanwhile, was preparing to follow Fareeha back in the sky to heal her shoulder, but stopped dead in her tracks when she felt two shotguns trained on her back. A gravelly, sickening voice spoke deeply behind her.

“I never got to repay you for what you did to me, Doc.”

Angela's frantic brain was trying to figure out her best option for survival, but her window of opportunity was a couple seconds at best. Her gun? No, Reaper would shoot the instant she reached for it. Winston, Zarya, and Mei were too far ahead to have heard Reaper; it wasn't likely that any of them would turn around before he shot. Calling for help would similarly lead the man to pressing the triggers early. Angela had to accept a cold, hard truth: she couldn't save herself from this one. Fareeha was her only hope of even noticing, but there were still problems if she did. Would a rocket make it in time? Would she get caught in the blast if it did? If Fareeha even stopped moving to line up a shot, the sniper might pick her out of the sky.

'This is it for me.' The doctor thought to herself, closing her eyes and accepting her fate. 

Fareeha’s eyes went wide as she watched the standoff between Angela and Reaper unfold. There was no time to think, only to act. With a knot twisting hard in the pit of her stomach, she flips in the air and uses her rocket jump to propel herself downwards at an incredible speed towards Angela. She manages to embrace the medic in her arms just as Reaper unloads both clips of his shotguns. The bullets rip through the back plating of her armor and an intense pain like no other she has felt before washes over her entire body, then a warm oozing sensation followed by numbness.

It’s hard to say whether the bullets or the impact from Fareeha is what knocks the medic back a few feet but Fareeha manages to do exactly what she was aiming for: protecting Angela. Soldiers are expected to give their lives if it means protecting someone and it was something Fareeha had made peace with years ago. Everything seemed to slow down for her and she remembered the conversation they had had on the flight over. The warmth of Angela’s touch. And the concerns Angela had confided in her. Mustering up her last bit of strength, Fareeha brings a shaking hand to the side of Angela’s face and smiles once she realizes for certain her efforts weren’t in vain. 

“Good. You’re.. safe,” Fareeha chokes out. “This.. is NOT your fault, Angie” The pain comes back in one more wave before everything goes dark.

Angela was frozen in pure horror when she realized that Fareeha had saved her, but at a terrible price. So many emotions slammed into her all at once, as if she were colliding with a truck. Fareeha had spent so much time and energy clearing out the area for her (and probably thinking that she wouldn't notice), as well as trying to cheer her up before the mission even started. This was their first mission together and yet the soldier gave up her life to protect her, just like that. With a smile on her face, and a nickname on her lips.

Tears streamed down her cheeks without warning. Angela inhaled, trembling, then exhaled a shuttering breath. After one more painful inhale, she reached out to the lifeless body. 

“Heroes never die!”

A golden light enveloped Fareeha's body, mending her wounds and guiding her back to the land of the living. Angela wished time would stop. There were so many things she wanted to say, but she couldn't. Not now. The battle raged on, and Reaper wasn't out of the fight.

'I'll be the one to protect you this time,’ was all Angela could think. For the first time in her life, the doctor whipped out her pistol without the slightest hesitation. She fired several shots at the masked man, intending to keep him distracted while Fareeha regained her bearings. A fierce determination coursed through her veins; they both needed to survive this so that she could speak to Fareeha later. 'Finish the mission,' Her mind told her, 'Finish it quickly.' 

They always say you see light so Fareeha thought nothing of it when the blinding, golden ray washed over her like a warm blanket pulled freshly from the dryer. It take a few blinks for her to realize that the angel she was seeing was actually Angela and a few blinks more to realize she was back in action. There was a look of pain and determination on the medic’s face and… was Angela actually using her gun?! The how and why questions would have to wait, but all that is important to her is that she was given another opportunity to keep Angela and her team protected.

Reaper scoffs when he notices Fareeha back in the fight and enters a wraith-like form to reposition. 

“Mercy! Get behind me!” Fareeha calls placing herself between Reaper and Angela for the second time.

“DIE!” Reaper shouts, coming out of wraith-form. He barely starts to turn in a circle to fire his guns before Fareeha fires a concussive blast to knock him over the edge. He would likely still survive but for now he was at least out of the fight.

“Oi! Payload is almost to its destination,” Tracers calls over the comms. “Let’s keep it moving already!”

“Roger. Rocket barrage ready. I’ll clear the final push,” Fareeha responds then looks at Angela with a nod. “I’ve got you on my radar. Let’s finish this.”

Angela nodded, her eyes still hard with determination. Then, after staring at Fareeha's face for a moment longer, they softened.

“I have my eye on you.” She repeated her line from earlier, although it carried a larger weight to it now. Once they caught up with the rest of the team, Angela made sure that everyone was fully healed before turning her attention back to Fareeha.

“Now's our chance!” A familiar blue glow enveloped the soldier one last time. It was up to them to deliver the final push. 

“Thank you,” Fareeha nods as beam’s sensation tickles up her spine once more. Fareeha rocket jumps in the air to position herself above the payload. She assesses where the remaining enemies are located then initiates the barrage. 

“JUSTICE RAINS FROM ABOVE!” Fareeha shouts, sending down rocket after rocket after rocket. A few hit their marks but the rest are enough to cause the enemies to fall back. When the payload clicks into position the enemies beat a hasty retreat. Fareeha drops to the ground to assess her team. 

“Status check. Everyone okay?” Fareeha asks.

“Still strong as the mountain,” Zarya says with a laugh. 

“I’m cool!” Mei giggles. 

“A few bumps and bruises, but nothing serious,” Winston says, adjusting his glasses. 

“All good here thanks to Mercy!” Tracer calls out. 

Fareeha nods and turns to Angela who still hasn’t answered and places a hand on the woman’s shoulder. She tips her visor up and can’t hide the look of concern on her face. “And you?”

There Fareeha went with her compassion again. The mission was over, yet she was still fussing and making sure that she was okay. Another wave of tears threatened to spill down Angela’s cheeks; she was a tad overwhelmed by the kindness.

“I'm fine.” She wipes at one of her eyes, hoping that the answer would suffice for now. Her eyes locked onto Fareeha's, promising silently that they would speak privately later.

Fareeha offers a soft smile and a nod of understanding.

Exhaustion set in quickly, but Angela was grateful for it. No one would question now why she was slowly trudging back to their vessel and not joining in their laughter while they exchanged stories. The only story she even had was one that she desperately wished to forget. The memory of Fareeha's bullet-riddled body and lifeless gaze was forever burned into her mind. There were many other memories just like it, but this one hurt worse for some reason. Perhaps it was because the soldier's very dying breath was spent trying to console her, or maybe part of it was the feelings that she kept trying to deny.

Angela quickly shoved these thoughts aside before they entered dangerous territory. Once inside their flight craft, the doctor sunk down on the first chair she passed by, closing her eyes and slipping into an uneasy sleep.

The best part of returning to the vessel for Fareeha was being able to take off the bulk of her armor and finally breathe a sigh of relief. It was close, too close for Fareeha’s liking, but the mission was successful.

‘But at what price?’ she wonders, watching Angela swiftly fall asleep. Her mind replayed the entire mission over and over again. She had been reckless in her actions and would have chastised anyone under her command for doing what she did and yet she found herself having not an ounce of regret. Deep down Fareeha knew if given a second chance she would do it all again without hesitation.

‘Gods, she’s beautiful,’ Fareeha thinks before she even realizes it as she watches Angela sleep.

“What’cha lookin’ at?” Tracer breaks in at the worst time over her shoulder. Fareeha coughs nervously as her feels her cheeks warm up to push that line of thinking as far down as possible.

“Oh! Just, uh, zoned out there for a moment thinking back on the mission,” she responds and hastily takes a seat. The journey back to base feels to take less time than getting to Dorado as Fareeha nods off in short nap bursts, stealing glances to make sure Angela is still alright when she can until they land.

“Wow, the Doc is really really conked out, eh?” Tracer says with an air of concern.

“I’m not surprised. We took a lot of fire covering your backs,” Fareeha sighs, her mind quickly flashing back again to their encounter with Reaper.

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that,” Tracers responds sheepishly.

Fareeha shakes her head and waves Tracer off, “Don’t worry about it. Go on ahead, I’ll get Angela to the medbay where she can finish recovering.” Once Tracer leaves Fareeha gingerly picks Angela up in her arms, doing her best not to wake her.

Angela wakes up the moment she was picked up since her sleep wasn't very deep, but she keeps her eyes closed for a while. Fareeha is as warm as ever without her armor on; Angela fights the urge to press further into her. After another peaceful moment, she decides to finally speak up. Her eyes flutter open while her hand grabs the fabric of the Egyptian's shirt.

“Why did you do it?” Angela looks up, her eyes searching the depths of Fareeha's, willing her to be honest.

Fareeha stops in the doorway to the medbay when Angela stirs. Her heart starts to beat faster as she stares into Angela’s crystal blue eyes. She finds herself beating down the same involuntary feelings that she had on the flight back again.

“Like I said before, the team is just as important as the mission,” Fareeha says softly. “You’re our medic. If you go down then everyone else could easily fall.” She takes in the doctor’s eyes again and notices them silently pleading for a more expansive answer. 

“If going down keeps you in the fight then I would go down on you again with hesitat—“ Fareeha pauses and tenses up as the warmth overtakes her face from the phrasing. She glances away and clears her throat. “I must protect the innocent and I cannot thank you enough for granting me another chance,” Fareeha adds with vindication. 

There was silence for a few moments.

Then, there was giggling.

Finally, Angela burst into a fit of laughter, ringing out loud and clearly for what seemed like forever.

“I'm sorry,” She wheezed, wiping a tear from her eye. “That was just... so funny.” Angela squirmed in a way that indicated she wanted to be let down. Once Fareeha complied, she grinned at her. Never had someone so effortlessly been able to completely lift her mood from such a low point, especially while being adorable in the process. There was no way that Angela wasn't going to tease her just a little bit, even if it meant flirting. “I'll always give you another chance if it means you'll go down on me without hesitation.” 

‘Did she just—?’ Fareeha thinks and buries her face in her hands in a vain effort to hide her embarrassment.

“I’m not going to live that down, am I?” Fareeha says with a laugh then takes a sharp breath in and drops her hands in an attempt to find her composure. It was so comforting to see Angela smiling and tears of amusement rather than those she shed on the battlefield. Even if it was at Fareeha’s own expense, she felt her heart jump at the genuine smile on the doctor’s face. Fareeha tried to think back to when the last time was she had felt this way with another and the only answer she could come up with was several years back. Fareeha steps in closer, purposefully accentuating their height difference.

“Hopefully next time I can do so with less rockets,” Fareeha gives her a sly grin that slowly fades into a bit of concern. “I didn’t hurt you when I slammed into you, did I?”

When Fareeha stepped closer, Angela notices that her stomach felt like there were butterflies inside of it, flapping wildly. Once Fareeha's attitude shifted from sexy to concerned, she let out a small breath that she didn't know she was holding.

“Only for a few moments. My Valkyrie suit is imbued with some of the same technology as my caduceus staff, so I heal quickly as long as my wounds aren't grave,” Angela gave her a reassuring smile, while simultaneously refraining from making a joke about Fareeha's 'slamming into you' comment. If Fareeha turned that charm from a few moments ago back on, Angela wasn't certain that she'd be able to resist. Instead, she leaned forward to hug the woman. “Thank you, for everything.” 

“No, thank you,” Fareeha corrects, squeezing Angela tighter.

As the two women started to pull back from the hug, each have the idea to place a simple kiss on the other’s cheek. This in turn meant missing their intended marks and sharing a soft kiss directly on the lips.

“I.. I’m…,” Fareeha’s eyes go wide and her face turns the deepest crimson. She hadn’t intended for that to happen but couldn’t say she was upset it did either. The linguistic slip up from earlier now dwarfed by this physical one. “I was aiming for your cheek.”

“Same,” Angela’s face was just as red as Fareeha’s and she found herself losing what little resolve she had remaining. Where there were butterflies in her stomach before, there was now an ignited flame, especially as she noted Fareeha still had a hold on her. The doctor runs a hand up to cup the side of Fareeha’s face and adds with a whisper, “But I don’t regret it.”

Fareeha’s eyes light up and she melts into the doctor’s touch with her face still adorning a brilliant shade of red. She places a hand overtop of Angela’s, giving it a gentle squeeze.

“Perhaps we could.. do that again?” she asks, a smile working its way on her face. “After dinner and some drinks?”

“I’d like that,” Angela giggles.


End file.
